Huge turnout for “the bravest woman in Afghanistan”

• Published on 18/01/2012
• Women’s Rights Team

Malalai Joya, Hobart, 1 September 2011.

On 1 September 2011 Amnesty International, together with Support Association for Women of Afghanistan (SAWA), hosted visiting Afghan speaker Malalai Joya to speak on the current position of women in Afghanistan.

The forum was a resounding success, with a packed crowd filling out Town Hall's conference room to hear human rights activists Malalai Joya speak.

Malalai Joya was a member of the Afghanistan Parliament from 2005 to 2007, before she was dismissed for publicly denouncing the presence of war criminals in the Parliament. She is also a writer, having published ‘A Woman Among Warlords’.

“In Afghanistan, democratic minded activists face many challenges, risks, and obstacles. The only difference between me and other Afghan activists is that I have fame. We are all fighting against a puppet mafia regime and against an occupation; we are fighting for justice, peace, democracy, women’s rights, and human rights in our country,” Malalai Joya said.

"They will kill me but they will not kill my voice, because it will be the voice of all Afghan women. You can cut the flower, but you cannot stop the coming of spring."

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